Friday, July 8, 2016

Pulling the gate/columns forward, below, welcomes you from the wide world into their private world, elongates the entry, and adds a foyer to the front door. Painting the columns same as the house adds them to the footprint of the home, enlarging the home's territory.
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Painting the columns a different color, or if they were stone, still adds good features, excepting they become part of the garden, not the house.
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Great wisdom leaving the tops of the columns empty.
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Front door & light fixtures chosen well, they make the house seem taller.
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Note the gutters, below. Copper color, not the brick color. Well done.
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Roof, below, is like jewelry for the house.
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Repetition of square shapes, below, highlights the fabulousity of the tall round urns at the windows. Super contrast.
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This garden design has been done for centuries. Have seen it on several continents, and at all price points. Done it myself, more than once. Looks fresh & new with each reincarnation.
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Even the front door handle was chosen with care. Drapes vs. blinds, again, well done.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Why pics in my garden are not perfect, but better. It's more important for you to see, 'real'. Why? You must be able to walk into your garden, any day of the year, and be able to take a roll of 36 slides, each worthy of a magazine cover. A major national magazine. Allowing for a bit of primping, those pics must be worthy of an international book cover.
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Ready to play in my league?
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This morning, below, shot less than 5 minutes ago. Walking to give the chickens a treat.

Stewardship of this garden began, horrendously, ignorant of stewardship. Waiting for denial to pass, decades, Providence, nevertheless, allowed the garden to steward me.

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This is where I fly.

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Terrible phone conversation last nite with my sister. Selling my home after 30 years, she asked, "Will you dig up all your plants and put in grass?"

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No, I responded, simply.

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If the next owner wishes to, that is their privilege.

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Here, this spot in my garden, pics above/below, a double axis, same path shot from opposite directions. Merely 1 pivot point in my garden where I find relationship to Earth, myself, others, Providence, stewardship. The more you go inward the more you outwardly connect.

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Lawn? Fertilizers, weed killers, fungicides, all toxic to the water supply & mychorizzal fungi, earthworms, pollinators. Mowing, watering, no shading of the house in summer. Wrapping little strips of green meatballs and dead mulch. High maintenance, literally, and figuratively.

More, my sister chastised me deeply for where I will be moving. I listened, not responding.

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I am moving into my beliefs. Yoked tightly with Providence. Flying. Ships were not built for harbor. Sailing.

A story from Terry Hershey, " His dream started when he was in college. Jeffrey Coale wanted to own a restaurant. Training in cooking and restaurant management helps, but so does money. So Jeffrey Coale went at it methodically. He worked for a number of years as a government bond trader on Wall Street. At night, he attended classes at the French Culinary Institute. He quit trading and took a job as an apprentice chef at the Louis XV restaurant in Monte Carlo. Next, he returned to New York to work at the Alain Ducasse restaurant. Wanting to refine his understanding of the wine side of the business, he then took a dream job as an assistant wine master at Windows on the World, at the top of the World Trade Center North Tower, in August, 2001. Meanwhile, Mr. Coale, 31, sifted around for a location for his restaurant. He had looked at several properties in Greece and New York.

“He left really good money to make $10 an hour at Windows,” said Leslie Brown, his sister. “But Jeff never settled for something. He always followed his passion.”
Jeffrey died on 9/11.
Tragedy? Yes.
Someone wrote that there are many tragedies in life, but dying young while living a passionate life is not one of them. As Paul Harvey would say, “here’s the rest of the story…” After Jeffrey’s death, reflecting on that devotion, two friends switched to jobs that better suited their own true interests. Two other friends broke off unsatisfying relationships. In memory of Mr. Coale, they are going to follow their passions.

Maybe that’s where we get stuck. We’ve been invited to fly… but somewhere along the way we’ve been told that……we are not enough…we are small and not sufficiently gifted…we are carried by the winds of public opinion…our identity is owned by shame…we owe it to someone to be perfect…we seem at the mercy of our grief or our rage" Terry Hershey

. Packing & staging & taking loads to the thrift store, in my library, I pulled yet another book for thrift store. Bought years ago from the same thrift store, bag-of-books-$1, I hadn't read it. The author's name popped, Terry Hershey. Reading it now.

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In the coop, below, this morning. After the massacre a couple of months ago 4 heirloom chickens remain, below, Alpha girl, marmalade, and her side kick Beta. Horrifically injured during the massacre, I don't know why they survived, to thrive. More, Alpha girl taught me a few things about alpha's. Gravely injured, 'alpha-dom' must be-will be maintained. Body language, eye language, attitude kept Alpha girl alpha. Unless I had witnessed this libretto I would not have believed it.

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"Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."

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My Camelot, my garden, is within. It travels with me.

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Yes, there is grief in this particular layer. Deep. Enough to keep me from flying? Hardly. Not flying would be fear. Consistent foe, I've learned to silence, with a simple question, 'What would I do tomorrow if I were not afraid?'

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I first sought a beautiful garden, a place of grace & atonement. More was given, than sought.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Beloved accuses me of being too wildly appreciative of the simplest elements of life. Therein lies my wealth, is my response.
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Since the chicken coop massacre, a month ago, the pair of profoundly wounded hens are healing well. But, cannot get to their roost at dark. Every evening I lift my girls to their roost. This task enriches my soul beyond measure. Merely thinking, 'I need to go lift my girls', as the chiaroscuro of dusk goes entirely black, makes my day.
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I keep a journal of pairs of words, and have begun noticing pictures insert themselves as pairs. The latter due to Pinterest, for sure. Favorite Pinteresting spot? Claw foot tub, glass of wine, Pinteresting on my large galaxy note, cat sleeping nearby. Ridiculous, my bad, told myself when the tub was put in a few years ago, 'no technology - only books.' Lost the battle, joined the winner.

New landscape, above, with an old soul. Adored, immediately, eyes locked/loaded, the car entry. A lot of challenges in this landscape, myriad. Each solution, a winner. Why the car entry, so much? Its location, scale, needs, necessities are each diminished, in abeyance to greater drama/importance, the front door. Owner/designer got every layer right, including the 1st layer, William Morris's, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." "The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."
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I must know who you are at the curb. Want to see, above, their interiors, art, books on the shelves, colors.... Garden design, above, is as beautiful in winter as summer/spring/fall. Low maintenance & eco.

This garden, above, honors the car gods, and slab-of-concrete-god. Parking court reigns supreme. Front door? Welcome, ye car. Welcome, people? When the annuals die, shrubs stop blooming, what's left?
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There is power in awakening to, "...genuine interest in all the details of daily life." Aside from increasing property value, decreasing HVAC costs, above, this homeowner will have less stress/frustration with caretaking their landscape and increased pleasure/calm/peace/atonement once the epiphany arrives, my garden needs to be ME.
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An afternoon Garden Design class, using only these two pics, is enough.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Top pic, Cote de Texas. Bottom pic, here.
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Bottom pic is common USA landscape story. House built, builder landscape, keep for decades, done.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Modern 2,000+ years ago. Modern today.
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No need to be an expert, to understand why garden centers are not 'on board'.

Calm. Facade, bench, pots, gravel, fade their colors into each other. I see the silhouette of branches in winter striking the house, and gravel. I hear the leaves, wind rustled, see their fall colors. Gravel crunching underfoot.
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This house doesn't make the Garden Design special, instead, the choice to have this Garden Design is special.
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Free Garden Design. Equally at home with a brick ranchburger ca. 1963, pioneer cabin, starter home, $2 million home in a gated community.
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Myriad choices made with this Garden Design. Especially adore all of the 'no' choices.
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Why is this Garden Design harder to choose than keeping foundation plantings, installed by the builder, and a pocked lawn needing mow/blow/go, fertilizers poisoning groundwater, zero aesthetics to increase property value, no choices for plantings to reduce hvac expenses, no thought for color, or pulling the foot outside to enjoy Nature?
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Picture from here.

Monday, January 26, 2015

When my father ran for city council, 1970's, he had Coffee's in friends houses. He lost. Ran again, won.

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When I go home I still walk the park at the marsh along Clear Creek, where fresh water meets salt water, created/saved/maintained with my dad on the zoning team. Further along my walk, towards the end, saved as I did during bike rides as a child, Galveston Bay on Upper Bay Road, Deep salt water, boats, my little island, the land of G*d. Too bad land views beyond the water were not in the jurisdiction of my dad's zoning team back-in-the-day. Now, it's all construction.

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Toward the end of dad's tenure in city government a parcel of land, salt water frontage, was considered for a new nursing home. Dad went ballistic. Zoning team worked hard, had many scares, yet prevailed. Nursing home never built, and the land preserved as a public park. Before reaching the boardwalk on Upper Bay Road, my feet are on the gravel trails of that park. Grace given from one generation to another. Dad & his team with zero concern for recognition.

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Today, the park 'just is' for most who pass it and use it. Exactly what the zoning team wished.

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Across USA are dozens of teams doing the same. However, they are not city government nor legal zoning groups. Few are recognized, nor want to be. Easier to work under the radar, these people are not stupid. Yet they perform major & minor tasks for communities, for you, for me.

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These groups made my career. Time has brought success, in gratitude I continue meeting with these groups at rates reflecting the early/hungry years.

3 decades of lecturing to Garden Clubs across Georgia, and USA.

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Decades of sitting thru their business meetings. They never cease to interest me. The Garden Club is the tapestry of a community, and a last bastion of civility.

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Information. Often the type you will not find elsewhere. Crimes occurring, who has died, who is gravely ill, who has moved away/in, arranging for community decor at the entry ways for the holidays.

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Nor is it uncommon for Garden Clubs to step into local government issues affecting their 'subdivision'. Yes, Garden Clubs have stopped major big box construction on small rural roads unable to handle the 'services' required. Most Garden Clubs have charities they raise money for, with long track records.

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A few Garden Clubs host Flower/Garden Shows bringing major convention traffic to their leading American cities.

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Every layer of activity with a Garden Club increases/touches social connection, property values, safety, civility.

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Unpaid public servants.

Garden Clubs have meetings about plants, but they are not plant meetings.

Holding office in a Garden Club is easy. There is a mentored path to president, if you wish. However, this is the realm of matriarchs. Beware, mean girls. If you're serious about going to 'president' position, those matriarchs will turn you into one of them, or you'll drop out because you-want-to. Once your name is off the Garden Club list, bless-your-heart, those matriarchs will still invite you in. Knowing the power of a Mean Girl turned Matriarch.
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As decades pass, and women retire from amazing careers, they join Garden Club for the first time. A broad array of skill sets are within Garden Club. Almost every time amongst them I'm wishing I knew everything every woman in the room knew. They humble me. There is so much to learn.

Most amazing fact about Garden Club? Virtually ignored by their cities & businesses.

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Unless the mayor has decided to become jealous of their successes. Yes, I know of that true story too. A delicious tale, but I have to head off to jobsites.

Wednesday was the Paris massacre too. Gathering coop debris Thursday evening, still seeing where dead chickens lay, feathers now in hand, how could this be dead people with families, friends, lives?

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This chore, a fragment of the gift of stewardship, made me aware of and pray for those caretaking the dead and wounded in the Charlie Hebdo office.

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A headline arrived about those caretakers. A police commissioner, after meeting with family of a Charlie Hebdo victim, committed suicide.

Less than 1/4 acre, in a subdivision of tightly packed houses, these pics are my home. Where my garden begins.
.Garden views reign at every window. Imperative, and non-negotiable. Thirty years building, garden paths, terraces, conservatory, potager, ponds, chicken coop, plantings blooming every day of the year, and etc.
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Three years ago, chickens arrived. The goal was to enjoy their calm sounds & movements, marvel at their beauty, then, processing. Instead, they taught me how smart chickens are, and human-like in their behaviors of hierarchy. Who knew they would make me laugh, daily? Plus, egg ministry. Ridiculous, it's fun giving eggs away. How wonderful my garden soil would be if it had had chicken poop for 3 decades instead of 3 years.
.Without effort, these chicks humbled me in arenas I did not know existed. They gave something no garden, no garden writer, no garden speaker, no garden classes, no horticulture degree, no garden book, no PBS garden show, no garden center, no garden website, no garden blog, no garden Youtube, no garden Facebook wall, even hinted toward, Stewardship.
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Until chickens, as enriching as my garden was, it was merely amusement compared to stewardship.
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Amusement with my garden felt like going to church, tacking onto its religion, reading the bible, making strong efforts to become spiritually filled. Stewardship, gives hints at hearing the author of the bible, knowing Nature as the 'written' structure of Providence. And the spiritual well? Filled beyond measure, without effort.
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Wendell Berry has written of stewardship in essays, poetry, fiction, for decades.
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Stewardship cannot be given. But, like Tasha Tudor chose for her motto, she read in a poem, Take Joy, Stewardship is there to be taken. Whenever you are ready. Stewardship is far more than caretaking chickens or a garden. It is metaphor.

What does stewardship mean to you?

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I settled for amusement with my garden, not knowing there was more.

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Stewardship. You have it for your own life, whether you think so, or not.

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Great amusement in knowing my chickens gave me stewardship. Greater thanks in the depth of the gift.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Do you know what processing a chicken means? Killing & eating. Never named my chicks, knowing I was a tough girl and would process them. Of course those thoughts were toast long ago.

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Alpha Girl has major physical trauma but is eating, pooping, alert, and I'm hand feeding. Yesterday she pushed away, in her total alpha girl 'attitude', another chick. Of course I had to tell Beloved how noble Alpha Girl is and I could only wish to be as noble in a tough situation.

Studying historic gardens across France taught me the connection of paint color and field gathered furniture.

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Been doing it in client gardens for decades. I'm not one to ignore the brilliance of earlier garden designers.

Another smile, with color. Have designed umbrellas into a client's barns/acreage. Using any color amongst her exterior color trinity. (Remember, every garden must have a color trinity.)

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Ironically, the chairs on the front porch of Glen Ella, yesterday's post, were created during a true poverty cycle, and now, are quite expensive. Hence, the style change with the back porch rocking chairs.

Shot yesterday, below, this new path follows a well trod dirt path my client created during 2+ decades in his home.

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Stepping stones, and edging stones were chosen to copy the type of stone put in by the builder originally.

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Gray cobblestone edging is more common, but not for this site. I needed to flow with the history already created, aka keep it simple sweetie.

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This project should be completed by the end of the week. Can't wait to do the walk thru with the owners.

Foot path location, below, used to create new formal stone path. Many garden paths would be complete, with just stones in dirt, below. This home is formal French architecture, the garden is not large, the entire garden is treated as a courtyard.

His original dirt path, below.

Stone edging piled, below, are called rubles. By us ! I think they are correctly named stone rubble.
Brown/beige/white gravel was chosen, too, to copy the existing stone color on site.
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Owner enlarged the scope of the project once we began. Always happens. Always. I think it's because owners 'see', once the paper design becomes 3-D. Of course there is great humor in knowing a few days earlier only a certain amount of money was available. Then, poof, voila, money landed from space to enlarge their garden project.

Paths are instant in a garden. Compare top/bottom pics. This project is incomplete but the changes are 180.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

"You must learn now, that the important lesson – as long as you have your health – is that the divide is not between the servants and the served, between the leisured and the workers, but between those who are interested in the world and its multiplicity of forms and forces, and those who merely subsist, ......." A.S. Byatt

Before computers & cell phones, handouts at my lectures had the quote, above, at their top or bottom. USA landscaping is broken, knew this decades ago. My big discovery, above, Le Jardin Rustique. Blessedly discovered, in Europe, decades ago. Created from thousands of years of refinements. Le jardin rustique's have created, & refined me..Never tire of experiencing another's awakening to le jardin rustique..High, medium & low meadows, above. Came home with Tara Turf at first siting. A well known blogger, saw similar and said, "they even have daisies in the grass." He saw, without comprehension. And, he's a degreed residential architect, USA of course..What is this enfilade, above, to le jardin rustique? Survival of mind-body-spirit. Literally, and metaphorically. .Aside from beauty, unskilled labor to maintain, no chemicals or n-p-k poisoning groundwater/killing pollinators, no irrigation system, canopy-understory-walls-groundcover plantings to increase pollinator habitat & shade/sun the house as needed thru the years/seasons, increased property value/decreased HVAC, increase of crop yields by 80%, scientifically proven need of our bodies to harbor beneficial bacteria given to us from these habitats reducing auto-immune diseases, ADD, depression & more, there is a simplicity of relationship with Earth, as we intellectually engage, Earth provides & sustains beyond what we know we need. .We all need a-room-of-our-own, Virginia Woolf, “When a subject is highly controversial, one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold.”.If you have read this far, and have a mow-blow-go-testosterone-on-wheels-commodify-all-I-touch-landscape, why? Rejection with those landscapes was upfront with me, without knowledge of their replacement. Decades have been spent finding the answer. More than resonate, hope your inner core, from your gut, feels the words, above..Garden & Be Well, XO Tara.Jung knew, "Our lives are about getting the outside to match the inside." The time this takes & riches to be found are, indeed, our life..Links to scientific studies meander in previous posts, no time to look them up today..Pic via Pinterest. ." ‘Like life,’ said the painter. ‘We eat and are eaten, and we are very lucky if we reach our three score years and ten, which is less than a flash in the eyes of an angel. The understanding persists, for a time. In your craft and mine.'” – from “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary”, by A.S. Byatt.For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client,local/on-line.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

If this were the only garden space, above, I had until age 89 it would be my life's goal/mission to be the sole soul maintaining this sweet garden.
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Why? Means I would be climbing a ladder to clip the espalier fruit tree or gather fruit, in season. Oh my, the joy of clipping the low hedge and spiral. Puttering about with the pots, bulbs, mentally deciding thru the years how to out-perform the previous year/s in fabulosity.
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If this little garden design did need a hired helper it merely needs unskilled labor twice a year.
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Beautiful, low maintenance, mentally stimulating through the years, no chemicals or watering needed, fruit to eat, turn into jam or give away.
.These little doorway gardens are quite common in historic gardens across Europe. History is the best teacher.
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Lawn with foundation plantings, fertilizer, insecticides, pre-emergents, and a plop of colorful annuals twice each year? Mr. Mow-Blow-Go-Commodify-All-I-Touch on contract to arrive weekly?
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Not for me. Mentally & spiritually soul crushing along with being bad for my physical well being.
.Aging in Place. Make the choice in your garden for type of garden design, the beauty, mental paths and joy in the maintenance whether you do it, or a helper. Take the joy. Joy, it's always there, whether you think so or not. Take joy, Tasha Tudor's favorite saying.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client,local/on-line.

Matriarch wants a new gate, below, patriarch a stone column. Will match stones to the house, field gathered from the property, smaller stones as plinth with fieldstone topper as done a century ago. Sourcing historic farm gates from England making every effort to keep this gate's frame & let an iron monger copy our new (old) idea.

Do you know what an Alice In Wonderland house is? They get bigger the closer you walk. That's this house.

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Go slow reading this, v e r y s l o w.

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What is missing, below?

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Flow.

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Cole Porter wrote about this house, don't- fence- me- in.

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Coming off the right side of the porch, I've put steps.

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This door, below, leads to the kitchen. What do you think I designed here?

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Seriously, design this, right now, in your head.

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From the corner of the front porch, and along the entire side of the house I've put in local gravel, 26' wide, straight to the foundation of the house. A priority making things simple for the matriarch & matriarchs she's raised. Aside from being historic they must unload groceries easily from their car.

What else did I do, below?

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What would you do?

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Remember, Cole Porter.

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Have sited fieldstone steps, gathered on site, into hillside.

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More about 'exactly' where they go in another post. Very easy, stay tuned.

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View, below, from the back porch.

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Have removed the 1st fence, not needed for cattle anymore, and put a gate, needs to be sourced, into the second, with a stile too. A path of invitation to the lake, adding a flagstone terrace, fire ring, and Old Town canoe with tiny motor attached.

Do you see, below, Cole Porter again? Where?
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Help, I can't get on/off the porch at the side of the house.
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At the open end of the porch, below, I have put in steps.

Fireplace, and 2 pair of French doors are inside this screened porch.

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Help, I can't get out.

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A pair of screen French doors have been designed into the far right panel, on axis with an interior pair of French doors, with stone steps. You knew that, right?

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You should be in the swing of this 'flow' thing. Finish the song.
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1 thing left to do, below.
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What is it?
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A pair of steps off the left side of the front porch.
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Voila, FLOW.
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Garden design, for plants, must be vintage with no maintenance. What do you think I did?

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Sleep on it. Will post the plant design soon.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics shot at the jobsite yesterday morning.

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This patriarch is one of the closest copies to John Muir I've met, though he looks exactly like Deke Slayton, who lived around the corner and my dad designed booster rockets for, with Wernher von Braun, and trained at the controls . The matriarch? I bow low in praise of her. Met one of the matriarchs she produced, close to my age, at a jobsite we shared, and how I came to the work. Matriarchs are a special love of mine. Yet many do not produce matriarchs themselves. Odd, yes? When women of a certain age have not crossed into the matriarch zone it is Joseph Campbell, 'if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere.' Discovered Garden Design 'flow' at Lake Rabun, the family home I married into/out of. Would marry that alcoholic again solely for what I learned about Garden Design at Lake Rabun. Driven for Garden Design? A bit. Toss in decades of studying historic gardens across Europe. Yes, I was anal enough to add a motor to the Old Town canoe !

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Flow is done in a Garden Design first. Not plants.

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Please pass this post to any of your friends who are interested in Garden Design. It's that important, aka it took me 30 years to be this simple, and sure. And, my work for Hedgerow Farm.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client,local/on-line.